Nancy Salsig’s garden
Martinez
Lot size: 3,000 sq. ft. front and back gardens, 85% native
Garden Age: The garden was installed in the fall of 2007.
Years on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: New this year!
Showcase feature: Inspired by the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, Nancy went looking for a designer who could help her remove her dead lawn and 20 years’ worth of ivy. Happily, she found Michael Thilgen of Four Dimensions Landscape Company, whose team designed and installed the garden. The front lawn was replaced with grasses, sages, California fuchsia, and yarrow. What was once the back lawn is now an attractive meadow containing bunchgrasses, blue-eyed grass, and sages, among other plants. The ivy on the slope was pulled out by hand—no pesticides used here!—and there has been little resprouting. Multiple seating areas invite one to linger; pull up a chair and enjoy this peaceful haven!
Other garden attractions:
- Basalt bird bath burbles pleasantly near the seating area, attracting people and feathered visitors alike.
- Drainage issues were cleverly resolved with a dry creek bed and bog.
- Cement patios were replaced with an inviting spaced flagstone path, which leads through the garden.
- Dry stacked moss rock retaining wall supporting the steep back slope curves gracefully along the rear of the garden; a huge improvement over the straight wooden wall it replaced.
Gardening for Wildlife: Native flowers, seeds, berries and a fountain attract lesser gold and house finches, titmice, chickadees, towees, doves and Nuttall’s woodpeckers. The fuchsia’s and sages attract a constant stream of Allen’s hummingbirds. Bushtits nest in the garden. A Cooper’s hawk recently zoomed through the back garden and rested in a tree, taking it all in.